On Halloween, she ran her first kids' race (after I ran a 5K, my first post-injury race). She loves to run with me, asking me to do sprints in the backyard, and begging to run to the end of our street with me every time I return from a run. So when I heard about the free kids' race in one of our local parks, I asked her if she was interested, and she readily agreed.

She ran a quarter-mile loop, half of it with me, and half with the hubs, who chased us down because I had the camera in my pocket and we wanted pictures of her running.

She received a participant ribbon after running through the same finish line arch I did an hour previous, and she was so proud of herself.

But nowhere near as proud of her as I was.

Oh, and guess who loves tennis again?

After the debacle of her tennis-lesson-day meltdowns twice last month, something clicked in her little mind, and now? She can't wait for her lessons. Her coach spent some time with her, encouraging and supporting her, and I think the extra attention really helped. Her last lesson of the 7-week session is Saturday, and last week she received her "report card."

Apparently, she can do a short rally with another player! She shows a good "ready" position! She has good coordination!

And after asking her if she would like to continue tennis, she gave me an enthusiastic "yes!", so I signed her up for the next 11-week session. Look out, Venus and Serena.

After watching her interact with Luci and Nicholas on a daily basis and with the younger siblings of her friends, it's readily apparent that Isabella loves playing the caretaker. She has an amazing degree of patience with L and N's antics, their constant scrounging into her stuff, and their demands for my attention.

She is 4, and of course, no perfect angel. She has some big-time emotional outbursts, especially when she has an idea of the way things should go, and I don't carry out her wishes as directed. She likes routine, order, and repetition, and if things deviate from this, she is not happy.

And her bond with her best stuffed animal Charlie continues to deepen. I swore he would not leave the house ever again after this spring's Land of the Lost Lovey episode, but a few weeks ago she asked to take him in the car with her to preschool, and I caved. And now, she almost never takes a car trip without him.

Guess who has not ordered Replacement Charlie, despite Stacey sending me the link to his look-a-like several months ago?

Must.Get.On.That.

Isabella has memorized every single line in Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and recites it to L and N before bed every night. She also "reads" them other stories too.

It's been a fun month, and we've been able to get out sans twins and do a few seasonal activities.

We went to our town's Halloween festivities at the library and town hall. The events included a kids' parade of costumes, and meetings with favorite book characters.

As you can see, Isabella went as a red crayon this year, an homage to her love of drawing and the color red. I'll have my Halloween recap post up sometime before Valentine's Day, I promise.

We've also gone to our town's farmers' market just about every Sunday morning since it opened in the spring. Isabella loved painting a pumpkin on the market's 350 Day.

She is heavily (and I mean, heavily) into art projects and anything with coloring, glue, tape, and scissors. It's awesome to see her work evolve as she gets older. She can draw actual objects and people now, and they look like what they're meant to represent. Every day, several times a day, she's drawing, cutting paper, gluing bits of paper to other pieces of paper, etc.

We have her art work taped up all over the house.

Current Likes: Dance "shows" in the living room to the world's most annoying Dora CD, helping me clean, naming all her stuffed animals except for Charlie "Ava."

I'm glad she's loving the tennis - it's such a great sport for kids I think. As for the running - I can *just* imagine how proud you must have been. My eldest ran his first sprint race at school back in April - and he was only 4 at the time, but I slipped into the lines just before it was his turn to line up with 5 other little boys and go and told him to stay focused on the finish line - not to look at anyone around him and to just go for it. (I did this quietly - and only one teacher noticed) - I knew from experience that at this age - kids usually sort of just run along looking at those on either side of them - so when his turn came he just did exactly what I'd advised and finished the race about 20m ahead of everyone else - to the point where you could hear the *awe filled gasps* from the parents. (insert competitive mommy grin here). The teacher came over and actually asked me what I'd said to him right before the race, because it "obviously worked" ! ha ha. It's great when your kid can get into something you 'get' isn't it?

Quick Snapshot:

34-year-old writer andmother to a daughterborn in August 2006 followingIVF and girl/boy twins born in October 2008 following FET. Come along as I document the search for my lost intellect. It's a bumpy ride. Consider yourself warned.